Electron ejection by helium metastable atoms incident on the clean and chalcogen covered Ni(100) surface

An intense, essentially photon free, helium metastable beam has been used to cause electron ejection from the clean, oxygen and sulphur covered Ni(100) surface, in a system equiped with an AES facility to monitor surface cleanness. The ejected electron energy distribution obtained for the clean Ni(100) surface is narrow and peaked at ～2 eV, unlike the distribution obtained from INS studies, and consequently indicates different de-excitation mechanisms for incident ions and excited atoms. The ejected electron distribution from the adsorbate covered surface is also narrow, but peaked at ～1 eV with structure which is essentially independent of the nature of the adsorbate. The yield of ejected electrons is found to increase linearly with coverage of both oxygen and sulphur, in contrast to the results obtained from INS. These data indicate that Auger neutralization does not occur at the surface; the possibility of Auger de-excitation is considered.